Dredging bucket



Sept. 8, 1931 E. c. WAGNER 1,822,181

DREDGING BUCKET Filed Aug. 13, 1935 Elm/C Wagner wgMZ.

Patented Sept. 8, 1931 FFICE.

EMIL G. WAGNER, OF MONTESANO, WASHINGTON DREDGING BUCKET Application filed August 12,1930; Serial 1%. 474,920.

My invention relates to dredging devices, and is particularly intended for the dredging of beaches, river bottoms and the like.

it is my object to provide a dredging device 5 which will dig directly down, and will not require draggingor any lateral movement to operate, and which can be operated satisfactorily at considerable distances below its point of suspension and drive, as for example, in deep water.

It is a further object to provide such a device which will be simple in construction, and therefore inexpensive, and which will be reliable in its operation. f

It is also an object to provide a device of this general character which will, in effect, he automatic in its operations of digging and discharging.

My invention comprises the novel parts and the novel combination and arrangement thereof as shown .in the accompanying drawings, described in this specification, and as will be more particularly pointed out by the ole ims which terminate the same.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown my invention in a form which is now preferred by me, it being understood that various formsmay be adopted within the scope of my invention and claims and without departing from the spirit thereof;

Figure 1 is an axial section 'through'my device, shown in position for loading.

Figure 2 is in part atransverse section and in part an end elevation, showing my bucket in operation loading.

A receiver 1, having an aperture 10 in its periphery, and having the end walls 11, is supported from a suitable frame 2, which may be inverted U-shape. Any suitable means of supporting the receiver may be employed, and as a convenient means, I have shown a rod or shaft 12 extending through between the ends of the le s of the frame 2. and mounted to rock therein, this rod passing through the ends 11 of the receiver and se cured thereto as by welding. The receiver is preferably cylindrical in form, and is supported at its axis, so that it may swing or oscillate upon said axis.

Supported upon and rotatable about the periphery'of the receiver 1 are a series of l' ets 3. l prefer that these be of less width than the width of the receiver l. These are closed at their ends, as at 31, but open at the inside, and the material is retained within them by contact with the periphery of the receiver 1. In order to guide the buckets in a true path about the periphery of the receiver 1, parallel spaced ribs or guide flanges 15 may be provided about the periphery of the receiver. Through this means, or through the support of the buckets upon the receiver, there is suflicient friction to tend to cause the receiver to rotate with the buckets, and stop means 13 and 14 are pro- I vided upon the receiver, these cooperating with the legs of the frame 2 to hold the receiver in one oftwo positions, which positions it will assume by reason of the'fric- I tional tendency to rotate, referred to above.

In one position, the opening 10 will be uppermost, as shown in the drawings, and the stop 13 will engage the frame 2; inthe other position, the stop 14 will engage the frame, and the opening 10 will then be lowermost.

Preferably removable teeth or edges are employed at the forward edge of the buckets, which can be removed, sharpened, and replaced, or others substituted therefor as may be desirable from time to time. i

The method of support and drive of the buckets may be varied considerably, but as shown herein, the buckets 3 fit about the periphery of the receiver 1. The side walls 31 are provided with inwardly projecting flanges 32 which engage the-inner surfaces of the guide'flanges 15 of the receiver. A flange member 4 which may take the form of a sprocket wheel without spokes or hub may conveniently be secured to each of the bucket side walls 31 by studs 34. The inner edges of the flange members may project inwardly sufficiently to engage the outer surface of the guide flanges 15, thus maintaining the buckets in position for rotation about the periphery of the receiver,

Above the receiver and buckets, and supported upon a shaft 5 ournaled in the frame 2, are drive sprockets 40. Chains 41 connect the sprockets with the larger sprock- 1M ets 4:, and upon rotation of the shaft 5 the buckets 3 are rotated, as will be understood. Rotation of the shaft 5 is conveniently obtained through a cable 6, which passes about a pulley 56 upon the shaft 5. This cable 6 serves both to suspend the dredging device and to rotate the buckets 3,

Movement of the cable in one direction serves to advance the buckets 3 in a counter clockwise direction, as seen in Figure 2, whereby they pick up material and upon reaching the aperture 10 deliver it into the receiver 1. After sufficient material has been collected (and it will be observed that the more material is in the receiver, the harder it bites into the ren aining material because of the added weight) the receiver is raised and swung to a depositing point, and the cable 6 is paid out in the opposite direction, which causes reversal of the buckets 3. By reason of the frictional drag of the buckets upon the receiver 1, the receiver is caused to oscillate until the stop 14 engages the frame 2, whereupon the material will pass out of the receiver through the aperture 10 and into the buckets 3, being immediately discharged.

It will be apparent that the cable 6 may be of any reasonable length, and that such a dredging device may be dropped down into deep water, where it will dig straight down, and it may be raised again to the surface to discharge. The values, particularly in gold mining, are usually found in deep pockets, and it is only by the employment of a device which will go straight down that these values may be reached and recovered. If there are values in the material at either side, the sides of the hole which such a dredge will dig will tend to collapse into the hole, if the material is of gravelly character, and thus such a dredge will collect all of the gravel and values without the necessity of its being given any lateral movement.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A dredging device comprising a cylindrical receiver having an opening in its periphery, buckets revoluble and in contact with the periphery of the receiver, and open at the side next to the receiver, a support for the receiver permi ting its free oscillation about its axis, means to revolve the buckets in either direction, and by their frictional engagement with the receiver tending to rotate the same in like directions, and stop means limiting rotary movement of the receiver to positions wherein the opening is uppermost, and lowermost, respectively.

2. A dredging device comprising a cylindrical receiver having an opening in its periphery, an inverted U-frame revolubly supporting said receiver at its axis, buckets mounted ,to revolve about the receivers axis and over its periphery, said buckets being open at the side next to the receiver, a shaft carried by said frame above and parallel to the axis of the receiver, drive means connecting said shaft and said buckets, and means for suspending and driving said shaft.

8. A dredging device comprising a cylindrical receiver having an opening in its periphery, an inverted U-frame revolubly supporting said receiver at its axis, buckets mounted to revolve about the receivers axis and over its periphery, said buckets being open at the side next to the receiver, a shaft carried by said frame above and parallel to the axis of the receiver, drive means connecting said shaft and said buckets, a pulley upon said shaft, and a cable passing about said pulley to both rotate said shaft and suspend the dredging device from above.

4. A dredging device comprising a cylindrical receiver having an opening in its periphery, an inverted U-frame revolubly sup porting said receiver at its axis, buckets mounted to revolve about the receivers axis and over its periphery, said buckets being open at the side next to the receiver, a shaft carried by said frame above and parallel to the axis of the receiver, drive means connecting said shaft and said buckets, means for suspending and driving said shaft, the buck ets frictionally engaging the receiver, tending to rotate the same, and stop means interengageable between the receiver and the frame, to limit rotation of the receiver in one direction to a position wherein the opening is uppermost, and in the other direction to a position wherein the opening is lowermost.

5. A dredging device as in claim 2, including sprocket wheels secured to the buckets at the ends thereof, flange means interengagcable between the buckets and sprocket wheels, on the one hand and the receiver, on the other hand, to guide the buckets in their rotary movement, sprocket wheels on the shaft, drive chains connecting the sprocket wheels on the shaft and those secured to the buckets, and constituting the drive means for the buckets.

Signed at Montesano, Washington, this 31st day of July, 1930.

EMIL C. WAGNER. 

